Wednesday, July 21, 2010

With Vision

I just watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I had low expectations, because it being Nicholas Cage's most recent flick. I ain't that into M. Cage recently. I was, therefore, pretty pleased to have enjoyed myself watching it. It carried on and remained entertaining, and for being the somewhat childish "magic is cool for kids and adults, too" movie that it is, it was entertaining. But all that takes care of itself. I want to write about the introduction of the protagonist...whose name eludes me... I'll call him Steve.

Steve was introduced in this movie as a ten-year-old. You knew he was the protagonist because he was in the middle of the screen most often. One of the early things which he was shown to do was to be drawing on the window of the bus on which he rode. You didn't see what he was drawing till he was done when his friend said, "You're not supposed to be doing that." Then Steve said, "Just a second...all right, now." And when he said "now," the bus went around the corner, and you saw that he'd drawn on the window a picture of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building which appeared outside the window incorporated into he drawing at that moment. It demonstrated that the kid had vision. He saw things in non-linear compounds of his sedimented experiences, his past experiences inform his present actions. I like the term visionary applied to him. He sees with memory and plans with experience.

The second thing about him which was interesting was how he asked out the leading lady, when he was ten. He passed her a note that asked, "Friend? Or girlfriend? Check one." And you knew, from how the cinematographer had blocked the scenes, that the girl chose girlfriend. He was so cunning and clever and she seemed so susceptible that you knew they were set up to get together. So it was really interesting when you saw Steve next and he was totally awkward and not confident. Character development gallore.